#chapter music

7/22/25.

One of the first posts when we started this blog in December 2014 was Dick Diver's excellent 7", "Arks Up". But, that was the only post devoted solely to one of my favorite Australian bands from the early 2010s.

Soon after the the blog started, the band released their 3rd album, "Melbourne, Florida", toured the U.S. (stopping in Davis for a great show with Michael O. and G. Green), then broke up.

Now, they are re-uniting to celebrate the 10th anniversary of "Melbourne, Florida" and do 4 shows in Melbourne. Chapter Music is releasing 300 run opaque yellow version for this occasion and it seems like the band is not reforming permanently.

Moonlight Kath Bloom & Loren Mazzacane (Connors) 1984, St. Joan (Bandcamp)

Despite Moonlight’s tones being quite hushed, and both Kath Bloom’s vocals and Loren Mazzacane Connors’ guitar being, we could say, adventurous with regard to pitch, any time I throw this album on as background music conversation tends to gradually trail off, and my guest will look at me perplexedly and say something like, “Why is this so fucking good?” Which, I think, is one of the main reasons to buy LPs, whether you’re DJing with wax or just the sort to get a bit pouty when a visitor wants to stream something instead of playing with your carefully alphabetized collection.

On that count, Moonlight is indispensable. Released on a private press label in 1984, Moonlight was the final collaboration between self-taught guitarist/songwriter Kath Bloom and Loren Connors (billed at the time as Loren Mazzacane), an avant-garde acoustic blues/folk guitarist. The recordings are so sparse you can occasionally hear a woody creak break through, like a rocking chair or someone stepping on an old floorboard. Bloom’s voice is an airy thing, seeming to billow and drift of its own accord, even up to high white notes that threaten to move out of hearing. Connors lets Bloom’s steady, dreamy fingerpicking carry the melody, using his own instrument to duet with her vocal. I suspect the appeal of Bloom as a partner was in the challenge of translating her instinctive vocalizations to his guitar. His lead lines share her wandering spirit, plucked sequences of panged off-notes that ring true.

There are moments that have the outsider joy of Daniel Johnston’s music, with its childlike directness and strange lyrical perceptiveness, like closer “Love Makes it All Worthwhile”:

“Every night it’s the same old thing He puts it in And then he takes it out again You might be closer Closer if you do Maybe he just wants some more of you It’s love Makes a difference It’s love Makes it all worthwhile”

“Breathe in my Ear” doesn’t develop much further than its chorus of “Breathe in my ear / I love you,” but Connors’ guitar and the sound of the players’ shifting in their chairs combine to create a warm impression of bodies moving on a well-worn mattress. Other songs are bolted together a little more firmly, but feel no less sublime for it, like “You Cleared Up the Sky,” where Connors takes a long, bluesy solo and you sense Bloom listening with soft wonder to what he plays. At time of writing there were only a handful of vinyl copies remaining of Chapter Music 2019’s reissue on their Bandcamp (well, there are exactly five, so let’s say you have large hands), so if you’re interested it might do you to pick one up sooner rather than later. Do it for your guests.

Photo by Gen Kay

Care by CLAMM

CLAMM, out of Melbourne, gets maximum force out of the punk trio formation. The band lands brutalist punch after punch in battering songs that are anthemic without being especially devoted to melody. These are shouty, rally-the-masses adrenaline hits, stripped to pounding one-two simplicity, and sheathed with echo.

The Same - Sync or Swim (Freedom To Spend)

Sync or Swim by The Same

Tangled Shoelaces - Turn My Dial - The M Squared Recordings and more, 1981​-​84 (Chapter Music)

Turn My Dial - The M Squared Recordings and more, 1981-84 by Tangled Shoelaces

Kurious - A Constipated Monkey (90s Tapes)

A Constipated Monkey by Kurious

Pylon - Chomp (New West Records)

Chomp by Pylon

Abner Jay - I Don't Have Time To Lie To You (Mississippi Records)

I Don't Have Time To Lie To You by Abner Jay

Linda Smith - Till Another Time: 1988-1996 (Captured Tracks)

Till Another Time: 1988-1996 by Linda Smith

Muziekkamer - Op Zee (Stroom)

Op Zee by Muziekkamer

VA - The Paths Of Pain (The CAIFE Label, Quito, 1960-68) (Honest Jon's Records)

The Paths Of Pain (The CAIFE Label, Quito, 1960-68) by Mendoza Suasti

VA – A Heart In Splinters (More From The CAIFE Label, Quito, 1960​-​68) (Honest Jon's Records)

A Heart In Splinters (More From The CAIFE Label, Quito, 1960-68) by Gladys Viera

Bogdan Raczynski - Muzyka Dla Imigrantów (Mondoj)

Muzyka Dla Imigrantów by Bogdan Raczynski

MC Solaar - Prose Combat (Polydor)

Sun Ra - Lanquidity (Strut)

Lanquidity by Sun Ra

White Light / Jo Bogaert - Whale (Stroom)

Whale by White Light

Sylvia – Sweet Stuff (Wewantsounds)

VA – Longing for the Shadow: Ryūkōka Recordings, 1921​-​1939 (Death Is Not The End)

Chapter Music Bushfire Benefit - 28-track comp